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Feb. 8th, 2003 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaI'm having one of those evenings where I feel lonely and at loose ends. I'm supposed to be working on my dissertation, and slowly I'm actually developing inclinations to do so - it usually takes a while - but in the meantime I've been drifting from book to computer to TV without really settling in anywhere.
I sat down at my piano for the first time in a long time. Many, many years ago, I was a good pianist. Not concert good, or jazz improv good, but I used to play classical pieces well enough to please myself and the casual listener. The last time that was true was... wow. The last time that was true was my first year of college, twelve years ago.
I stopped practicing when I moved off campus and no longer had easy access to an instrument. In graduate school, I bought a piano, but that seems to have been too late. At that point I was so far out of practice that I only felt comfortable playing when no one was home, so that no one would hear my stumbling fingers. More importantly, I had lost my piano muscles. Because of the way my right elbow doesn't bend, I have to hold my arm at an awkward angle to play, and eventually it starts aching. When I was well practiced, "eventually" meant "after about an hour." Today it was closer to five minutes.
It makes me a little wistful to think of how much better I was at this when I was fourteen. I don't know whether I'll ever get back to playing regularly, or if it will always be a talent I had and then lost.
I'll borrow a style from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elisem, and close this with a question: Have you ever recovered a lost skill?
I sat down at my piano for the first time in a long time. Many, many years ago, I was a good pianist. Not concert good, or jazz improv good, but I used to play classical pieces well enough to please myself and the casual listener. The last time that was true was... wow. The last time that was true was my first year of college, twelve years ago.
I stopped practicing when I moved off campus and no longer had easy access to an instrument. In graduate school, I bought a piano, but that seems to have been too late. At that point I was so far out of practice that I only felt comfortable playing when no one was home, so that no one would hear my stumbling fingers. More importantly, I had lost my piano muscles. Because of the way my right elbow doesn't bend, I have to hold my arm at an awkward angle to play, and eventually it starts aching. When I was well practiced, "eventually" meant "after about an hour." Today it was closer to five minutes.
It makes me a little wistful to think of how much better I was at this when I was fourteen. I don't know whether I'll ever get back to playing regularly, or if it will always be a talent I had and then lost.
I'll borrow a style from
elisem, and close this with a question: Have you ever recovered a lost skill?
no subject
Date: 2003-02-08 08:09 pm (UTC)so coming out of the divorce, my gift to myself despite desperate financial straits was voice lessons--el cheapo voice lessons but one hour a week for myself plus practicing in the car during my 45 minute to 1 hour commute to tapes i made each week of the lesson since i had no stereo, post-divorce, but i did have a cassette player in the car. i deliberately picked things to push my range and it was a long time coming back--i still can't get back up to that F but i have all the notes that i need to sing first soprano. after a year i auditioned for the university of chicago chorus and got in and have been singing with them ever since.
i don't think i even realized how much i missed singing in a choir until i started doing it again but it's totally worth all the hours i put into vocalizing and rehearsing.